After filing his company for bankruptcy, Kyle's wife leaves him and his three-year-old son. Now a forty-two-year-old divorcee with no parenting skills or money, Kyle decides to move back to the small home town he grew up in.
He should have lost all...
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Otis was sitting in the center of the living room with Chaska. They were coloring in dragons and cartoon castles.
"Chaska, do you know where Otis' puffer jacket is?" Kyle's mother asked, walking into the living room with a basket filled with clothes. She was going to do laundry, and after that Chaska would make her a cup of tea before taking over with chores.
"It's at my apartment," Chaska said, looking up from the coloring book. "Kyle and I will be doing one last look around and pick up tomorrow, sorry."
The old woman smiled. "It's no problem. I can't wait for you all to live together so things aren't miles apart," she said with a sweet laugh before walking away.
Chaska smiled at that before looking down at the picture Otis was trying to get his attention to see.
It was a Friday afternoon, and the Christmas holidays were starting early for the kids in school, so Chaska had free time to spend with Otis and his grandmother. Kyle has a client to work for today, so he wouldn't be back until sometime in the evening.
In-between work, taking care of Otis, and doing basic house chores the two men had managed to move most of the furniture in Chaska's place over to the townhouse. They had put his clothes in boxes and bags, and they were going to pick those up tomorrow. The cats were still at his apartment, but Kyle and Chaska planned on bringing them over to Kyle's mother's place for the time being by tomorrow
The plan for the holidays was to spend Christmas and New Year's Day together in Kyle's mother's cottage before leaving for their own house sometime in January. Everything was happening fast, but Chaska has been able to keep up so far. He was excited about the change in his life, and he was happier than he'd ever been in his whole twenty-two years.
"Can you draw the house?" Otis asked, making Chaska come out of his thoughts. The young man blinked before staring down at the blank corner of the coloring book the toddler was pointing to. "The new house," Otis went on, giving Chaska a pencil.
"Okay," the dark-haired man said, trying his best to draw a simplified version of the red brick townhouse he has Kyle has gotten together. They talked about moving in together and the house a lot in bed, so it was natural that Otis picked up on it. Even his grandmother mentioned it quite frequently.
"The cats will live with us?" the child asked, as their small mouth made a shocked 'o' as they clapped their hands. Chaska nodded, drawing the third cat as a stack of circles with a wriggly line as the tail.
"Daddy," the boy laughed, staring down at the stick drawing that Chaska gave Kyle's new fuzzy scruff. The taller stick figure standing beside it took a while for Otis to figure out but he soon did. "Chaska!" he said, pointing at the long lines for hair.
Chaska nodded, picking up the boy before placing him in his lap. The boy said Chaska like 'chess-car' but he never bothered to correct him. The British cartoon accent was here to stay it seemed.
